(One drop at a time.) My journal entries about offering copies of the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other LDS church books, mainly to immigrants in their native language, mainly in Indianapolis, Indiana. With 106 translations, the Book of Mormon (along with the Bible) is a good "Rosetta Stone" for learning English or other languages, in addition to being a missionary tool.

My goals in keeping this blog/journal are: to encourage others to offer people copies of the Book
of Mormon and the Bible, to illustrate the incredible number of recent immigrants who are eager
for bilingual material, to illustrate the ease of encountering them and offering them material,
and to make known the wonderful deeds of the Lord (Ps 105:1, Isa 12:4) in arranging many of these
encounters. I realize that the concept of offering foreign language books to strangers is just
plain weird to many people, so here are some hints if you are intrigued by this and wish to try it.
Respectful comments and constructive criticism are invited.

The goal of the book placement effort is to provide, in a friendly non-threatening way, gospel
material to someone who is willing to receive it in their native language and English.

To the recipients of these books who read this: I thank you again for allowing me
to be of service to you. I encourage you to read the material, and pray to God that He
confirm the truth of it to you. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are both the Word of God.
Living according to their teachings brings happiness.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Moment #523. Chinese at Post Office. Mon, Feb 6, 2006.

02/06/2006. As I entered the Post Office to check my PO Box, I noticed an Asian-looking man waiting in the outer lobby. He appeared to be humble. I checked my box, and it included a Korean and a Chinese Liahona. I approached the man and asked if liked to read Chinese. He said yes. I asked if he was from China or Taiwan, and he said China. The Chinese Liahona is in traditional Chinese, not the Simplified Chinese used in mainland China. But I offered it to him anyway. He eagerly and gratefully accepted it.

I thought about offering him a Chinese and English Book of Mormon, but decided that the magazine was enough. I went back to my car and started to read some of my other mail, but felt a sense of urgency about giving him a Chinese Book of Mormon. I took a Simplified Chinese copy and an English copy of the Book of Mormon back in and presented them, and he graciously accepted them.

2 Comments:

The Simplified vs. Traditional Chinese issue can be vexing, not because the writing systems are so different (they're very similar), but since there may be yet a further simplification (or reorganization) of the characters in a decade or so. Mainland China uses the simplified characters, but Taiwan and Hong Kong use the traditional, as do Japan, Korea and Vietnam for their writing systems when they use the characters. (Most overseas Chinese also seem to prefer the traditional.) So I suspect that the various countries will be meeting up to discuss the issue and try to settle on something in common, probably with the Mainland Simplified reverting to traditional in some cases, while retaining many of the Simplified in others. As I said, most characters are very similar (the majority are the same between the two systems) and most others are obvious, but there's still enough confusion in a few cases to warrant a standardization.

One more point of interest: As far as receptivity to the Book of Mormon and the LDS faith, I'm getting the sense that Germany and Austria may be prime destinations these days. There's been a resurgence of interest in religion in Germany, a sort of Great Awakening, both for native Germans and the millions of immigrants there. So long as the Church of LDS can appeal to Europeans with a flavor that sits well with the broader European culture (and geography), I suspect it will flourish. Many French have been surprisingly receptive, but Germany and Austria are most likely the prime locations for the spread of the LDS faith in Europe.

I try to get people to take both styles of the Chinese Book of Mormon to Chinese restaurants, but people can't seem to shake the mistaken notion that one is Mandarin and the other is Cantonese.

I wrote to the church's Curriculum Department, and the Distribution Center, encouraging them to put explanations on the web site catalog so members can educate themselves about which to order. It would be nice if such explanations were also in the materials themselves. Because it is mainly native English speakers who order the material in the US, _for_ Chinese investigators or new members.

I'm glad things are picking up steam in Europe.

The two groups to whom I've given out the most books are Africans and Chinese.